1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Problem
Students must focus totally on the fundamental skills of the language, i.e.
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading jointly of the four basic skills, is regarded as an important skill of Indonesian students since reading is that the only skill that has the best chance to be done. This is often an excellent advantage for teachers since the method of reading is taken into account as a significant skill by most teachers. As Dreyer & Nel (2003) also take consideration which suggests that, one in all the vital skills for people who learn a second language is reading.
According to Brown (2000), someone reads when he or she looks at and understands the meaning of written or printed words or symbols. Teachers should be able to provide students the appropriate teaching techniques to reach their educational goals of reading. Many techniques are created for teaching to prevent boredom and draw students’ interest. Teaching techniques are usually implementation, and that they happen in a classroom. It is often said that techniques depend upon the teacher, his individual artistry, and therefore the class. Particular problems may be tackled equally successfully by the help of various techniques.
Based on the researcher’s experience during internship in SMPN 15 Tanjungpinang, especially class VIII, most students had many difficulties dealing with English. There are some problems which made them difficult to master English subject. First, they had a mindset that learning other language beside their native language was difficult. This mindset affected the class subject because it led to their low motivation of learning English. The teachers found it difficult to teach because they had zero interest.
Second, some students found it difficult to pronounce words correctly, but some others did not. Those who could pronounce the words might have heard it before, as some of them have English lessons outside the school. Then, almost all of the students found it difficult to understand the meaning or even the message of the text they had read. Some of the students might be able to read the whole text correctly, but they actually did not understand of what they were reading. They had trouble in combining words to comprehend the meaning of the text.
Based on the problems above, the researcher assumed that the problem may be solved by using one of the teaching techniques called Cloze Procedure. The students are asked to complete the missing words. The missing words are placed in a box randomly. Brown (2003) used the word cloze to capture the Gestalt psychology concept of “closure”, as a capability to fill gaps in an incomplete image (visual, auditory, cognitive) and provide (from background schemata) omitted details.
In cloze procedure, the teacher would prepare passages and delete some words in each sentence in a paragraph. Then, the students would be asked to search
out the missing words by matching them with the words from prepare box. This means the students’ task is to read the passage and write within the missing word on a blank. The student is required to read the word choices and fill in blank space with either individual students or group of students. The aim of this technique is that when students connect the missing words and the words prepared in the box, they can grasp the plot of the text and also understand the meaning of text.
Based on the description above, the researcher interested to conduct a pre- experimental research. The title of the research is “The Effect of Cloze Procedure towards Students’ Reading Skill of Recount Text”. The researcher selected recount text as the text that would be study. It was because of the syllabus of Junior High School.
1.2 Identification of The Problem
From the background of the problem above, the researcher found some problems that can be research, such as:
1. Students had a mindset that learning other language beside their native language is difficult.
2. Students found it difficult to pronounce words correctly.
3. Students found it difficult to understand the meaning of the text.
4. Students might be able to read the whole text correctly, but they actually did not understand of what they were reading.
5. Students found it difficult to comprehend the message of the text.
1.3 Limitation of The Problem
To avoid misunderstanding, based on the identification of the problem above, this research was focused on the effect of using cloze procedure towards students’
reading skill of recount text.
1.4 Formulation of The Problem
The formulation of the problem in this research was “Is there any significant effect of using cloze procedure towards students’ reading skill in recount text?”
1.5 Purpose of The Research
Based on the formulation of the problem, the purpose of the research was to know whether or not there is a significant effect of using cloze procedure towards students’ reading skill in recount text.
1.6 Significance of The Research
The research is expected to have contributions for the world of education. The benefits of the research are:
1. For teachers
This research can help the teachers to get information regarding students reading skill when facing the similar situation.
2. For students
This research can help to improve their reading skills so that they can read in a better way with a better result.
3. For the researcher
This research can develop the researcher’s knowledge of teaching and learning process in the future.
4. For other researchers
This research can be a reference to other researchers in developing research related to the topic.
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
The following definitions are given to avoid ambiguity or misinterpretation.
Those key terms are:
1. Cloze Procedure is a technique of deleting words from a text to measure students’ reading skill.
2. Reading Skill is a skill of processing necessary information and its meaning from a text.
3. Recount Text is a genre of text which has sequence of events that retells past stories.
